Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Why it took me so long to read The Hunger Games

Way back when The Hunger Games first came out, I thought it might be something I would like to read. I picked it up in a bookstore, read the back cover copy, flipped to the first page.

Immediately put it down.

Why? It's written in present tense.

I really don't know why, but for some reason it's very hard for me to get into a book written in present tense. It might just be a matter of getting used to it, but I don't really think so. Deep down I just have an uncomfortable reaction to present tense in books.

For three years - three years! - people recommended the book to me, or I saw it again in the bookstore, but every time I picked it up with the intention of trying it again I was completely put off by the present tense.

I did, in the end, read The Hunger Games, and I really liked it. But every time I picked it up again after setting it down, it took me a couple of paragraphs to get back into the swing of the story.

I don't know. I don't really have a point here, other than that my first, gut reaction to a present tense novel is bleech.